Near-field communication (NFC) generally refers to an open-platform, standard-based, short-range, high-frequency wireless communication technology that enables a bidirectional information exchange between NFC devices over small distances (e.g., about ten centimeters). NFC devices typically communicate via magnetic field induction. In particular, each NFC device may have an NFC loop antenna such that when the antennas of two NFC devices are within each other's near-field, the antennas effectively form an air-core transformer that operates in a globally available and unlicensed radio frequency band. The near-field generally encompasses an area around the antenna in which electromagnetic fields exist but may not propagate or radiate away from the antenna. Instead, the electromagnetic fields are typically confined to a volume approximately the same as the physical volume associated with the antenna. Various standards apply to NFC devices, including ISO/IEC 18902 (ECMA 340) and ISO/IEC 21481. In one operational scenario, a first NFC device may operate in an active mode and initiate communication with a second NFC device operating in a passive mode. The active NFC device drives the antenna associated therewith to generate a radio frequency (RF) field. As such, the second NFC device, which is known as the target device, need not use any internal power source. Rather, the second NFC device may capture energy from the RF field that the first NFC device created and use the captured energy to load modulate the antenna associated therewith to generate a reply. The first NFC device may then detect effects from the load modulation to receive information back from the second NFC device even though the second NFC device operates in the passive mode and does not use any internal power source.
Although NFC devices may consume relatively small amounts of power when operating in the manner described above, modern electronic devices are becoming smaller and power management has become a vital concern. For example, in order to maximize battery life in a portable device, even relatively small savings in power consumption can be important. To that end, one existing technique to reduce power consumption in NFC devices has been to use input/output (I/O) circuitry that generates a hardware interrupt to put a NFC module in a low current consumption mode, which may be referred to as a DISABLE mode (e.g., after a predetermined inactivity period, to prevent conflicts with other communication technologies that may coexist with the NFC module on a particular communication device, etc.). Furthermore, the NFC module may operate in a TEST mode or a SCAN mode during a design process, a manufacture process, or other processes that relate to diagnosing or otherwise testing the functionality associated with the NFC module. As such, different control signals may be used to set the NFC module to different target operating modes. However, having additional pinouts, I/O circuitry, or other components in a communication device in order to manage these control signals tends to increase system complexity and present issues with respect to size and cost. For example, physical area may be required to house the additional I/O circuitry and increased complexity due to additional pinouts, I/O circuitry, and/or other components may add to manufacturing costs and thereby increase the cost to consumers.